2nd Try’s a Charm
or
How I learned to stop worrying and love my parents

I am writing this post in wordpad because I just posted it in one of my accounts (hmm, was it Moveable Type or Livejournal? No one except myself and Crave may EVER KNOW!) and due to a tragic back-page-accident, the whole goddamn thing is now gone. Here’s hoping there isn’t some secret key-cap in wordpad that will also fuck me directly up the ass.

There has been so much big LIFE stuff going on the past couple of weeks. My friend Casie once said that I stop posting when I am happy, and that appears to be the truth once again. So, here’s the wrap-up.

In the almost four years that I have lived in Seattle, my parents and brother have never been out here. Now, to a certain extent, I understand why. My parents are both teachers. They can’t afford to travel. I get it. Still, it’s always kind of sucked that I came out here to this new place, made it my own, and they have never gotten out here to see it. So, two fridays ago my 18-yo brother (BR) flies out, and my folks drive out from Illinois and meet us here a few days later. Here is a brief rundown of the week’s activities:

I pick BR up at the airport and immediately take him to the theatre because I have a show that night. He gets to eat pho for the first time, and I think he has a good time at the show. He gets to sleep on the couch all night with LoveCat, who apparently does not think that sleeping is an option. The next day, we talk about the fact that BR had never dyed his hair. Originally, when he found out he was coming out here, he wanted to get a tattoo, but he didn’t have enough money to do it. SO, we compromise by going to the grocery store and getting a big bottle of burgundy hair dye and covering him (and the bathroom!) with it. First, we try just giving him highlights, but it doesn’t work, so finally we just cover his whole damn head with it. It looks GOOD now - three cheers for maybe bringing him a bit out of his Midwestern Christian Shell!

Oh - did I forget to mention that Crave is sick in bed several days of this with a fever that peaked at 103.4? Right. ‘Cause if life was easy, it would be boring.

My parents get into town, and I proceed to show my family everything I can think of, until finally they get sick of it and tell me that they don’t want to see anything else. This list includes:

1) Seattle Residence #1 - Old Belltown Apartment
2) Seattle Residence #2 - Capitol Hill Apartment
3) Seattle Residence #3 - Wallingford House
4) Seattle Residence #4 - Upper Queen Anne House
5) Seattle Residence #5 - Current Belltown Apartment
6) Place of Employment #1 - Stupid Downtown Architects (where I was during the earthquake)
7) Place of Employment #2 - Theatre for Children-Types
8) Place of Employment #3 - Current Community Center for the Little and Jewish
9) Multitude of buildings I temped in
10) Space Needle
11) EMP and SFM
12) Stupid Monorail, which is not working
13) Argosy Harbor Tour - Interesting, but really not the shiznit it shoulda been for what we paid
14) Ferry to/from Bainbridge
15) Ivar’s on the pier to feed seagulls
16) Fave Vietnamese restaurant
17) Carey Park to see the famous skyline view
18) Archie McPhee, where BR and I take pictures in the photo booth
19) Dick’s, ‘cause you gotta
20) Pike Place Market
21) International Fountain
22) Fremont Troll
23) Fremont Statue People

Crave gets better just in time to have both his parents and my parents over for dinner. Let me tell you, this is a kind of nervewracking experience. My parents have never met my significant other’s parents - not even once - in my entire life. I haven’t been too worried that they wouldn’t get along, because obviously I love all of them, but … there are still some nerves. (I think that’s pretty understandable.) What I don’t expect is that they hit it off so well that Crave and I barely talk to any of them all night! My mom laughs at his dad’s jokes, and his mom laughs at my dad’s jokes, and the four of them carry on like old friends all night. My mother - who is notoriously over-emotional - gets choked up when they leave. They get along SO well, in fact, that we all take the ferry to Bainbridge a couple of days later to hang out at Crave’s parents’ house for an afternoon. Our moms sneak off and talk about us while Crave, my dad, my brother, and I watch all kinds of noisy stuff on the tv so that we can experience some DVD HD Surround Sound technobabble somethingorother.

It is really hard to see them go. I haven’t lived with my family since I left for IMSA the summer I was 14, and I haven’t had a completely positive visit with them since. This is the first time. They get to come hang out with me at work, where they meet my kids and are told by everyone what a damn good teacher I am. They see my beautiful home, and they meet not only Crave but also his family. They love our cats, they love the city, and all in all we enjoy each other’s company in a way that is pretty unexpected for me. It’s a weird thing, after all this time not being very close, for me to really love being around my family. And, of course, they love Crave - as I knew they would. I mean, seriously. Who WOULDN’T like having their daughter date this guy?

In any case, on to newer things! A couple nights ago, Crave and I wandered down to Myrtle Edwards Park with his giant digital camera, and he took a bunch of pictures of me. Here is one of me out near the water, and here is one of me in front of the train tracks. If you like either of them, he gets all the credit - he got to decide what I was wearing and how I did my hair and everything. He is very good at what he does.

We took more pictures today, but you don’t get to see those. ;)